Consumer Watchdog: Evansville woman one of many victims of contractor scam

I recently received an email from Dolores Bryant, of Evansville, about a nightmarish experience with a Greenfield-based construction company she hired last year after the water heater in her basement sprang a leak and flooded her home.

An insurance adjuster gave Bryant a list of “approved providers” to do the repairs, which included Remodeling Services and Complete Restoration of Greenfield, and Bryant says she checked out the company with the Better Business Bureau and found “only one small negative report.”

Bryant met with an RSCR sales representative, signed a contract for $33,000 and handed over a cashier's check for half that amount. In addition to the water damage repairs, the contract included fixing a leak under Bryant’s sun deck. Workers arrived that same day to start the job, Bryant said.

So far, so good. Several weeks later Bryant added more work to the contract – painting the walls, installing new kitchen flooring and updating the bathrooms. She gave RSCR a second cashier's check for $8,500, with the balance to be paid at satisfactory completion of the work.

Trouble is, that never happened.

Almost a year after hiring RSCR, Bryant says she has a mess on her hands. The painting has not been done and the laminated flooring has not been installed.

“The roof under the sun deck is leaking much worse than when the work was started, and numerous items stored in the garage have been ruined,” Bryant said.

Her sun deck is now unusable, she says, with missing planks, steps and railings.

“There is also a lot of trash and debris in the basement, garage and under the sun deck that needs to be removed,” Bryant said. “I have been given various reasons for the delays, illness, bad travel conditions…, etc. I will shortly be 88 years of age, which makes me wonder if they are trying to take advantage of me because of my age.”

Could be, I suppose. But it appears RSCR owner and convicted thief Michael A. Clark does not discriminate based on age.

Diana Patterson was only 40 when she lost her life savings — $160,000 — to Clark in 2000 when he promised to build her a home but never did. Patterson, a single mom who lived in Brownsburg, was among a number of victims of what a Hendricks County prosecutor called one of the largest construction fraud cases in the county’s history.

At the time, Clark faced 10 felony theft charges and did jail time for swindling people out of more than $250,000 in bogus home sales and business deals. Prosecutors allowed Clark to plead guilty to one felony theft count and dropped 14 other charges in exchange for his guilty plea and his promise to repay Patterson within a year, a promise he did not keep.

By 2005, Clark was working for TransFlorida Corp. of Rockledge, Florida, which lost its state business license over complaints that Clark and others took tens of thousands of dollars in deposits from customers and never followed through on the work.

Most recently, a Greenfield nonprofit organization, Friends of Recovery, filed a lawsuit against RSCR, trying to recoup $7,000 for work the company agreed to do but never completed.

The March lawsuit says that in September 2017, the nonprofit signed a contract with RSCR for repairs and upgrades at a new women’s recovery house in Greenfield, but the work was never done.

That’s probably because Clark had headed to Marco Island, Florida, to make some cash on Hurricane Irma repairs. Before long, he would be the target of new allegations of fraud.

Jim Pickens, president of Star Construction & Restoration on Marco Island, accused Clark in April of fraudulently using Star Construction’s contractor license to take deposits and pull permits for jobs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars — jobs Pickens claims he never authorized. Pickens said he realized what had happened only when he began receiving complaints from customers.

That case is under criminal investigation by the Marco Island Police Department, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Attorney General’s Office.

I tried to call Clark at the number listed for RSCR, but it has been disconnected.

I contacted Bill McCleery, deputy director of communications for the Office of the Indiana Attorney General, asking if Clark is on the Consumer Division’s radar and how consumers can be protected. I haven’t yet heard back, but here are a few tips from the attorney general’s office:

As you are shopping for a contractor, contact the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division and the Better Business Bureau for complaint information on contractors you are considering.

Ask your friends for the names of reputable contractors.

Compare bids and services. Be skeptical if the bid is too low. Cheaper is not necessarily better.

Get bids in writing. A detailed, written proposal allows you to shop around.

Is the contractor licensed, bonded and insured? The state of Indiana does not license contractors, and licensing requirements vary from community to community. Check with your local building department.

Get a written contract. Indiana law requires home improvement contracts exceeding $150 to be in writing. Before signing, make certain it includes:

The price of the job, payment schedule and start and completion dates

A detailed description of the work and materials

The contractor’s name and address

A name and telephone number of the person to contact if problems arise

The contractor’s signature

Never pay for the entire project before the work begins. Do not pay more than 1/3 of the total cost as a down payment. Remaining payments should be tied to progress of the work.

Don’t make the final payment to the contractor until you know that all subcontractors and/or suppliers have been paid.

Keep all records related to your project.

Bryant, who is still trying to figure out how to clean up the mess at her home, was surprised when I gave her the rundown of Clark’s checkered history. Now she will start shopping for a new contractor to finish the job.

“I guess I’m just lucky that I haven’t lost more than I did,” she said. “I’m going to let my insurance company know about this.”

Christine Young is the Consumer Watchdog for the Courier & Press. If you have a problem with a product or service, email her at christineonmyside@gmail.com.